Move

This will be my last post.

To get to my new blogg that I have established, click on the following link.

http://andreasjj.wordpress.com

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Today's word is sayounara - goodbye

r0x0rd teh x0xxor

I'm just updating now to tell you all that Blogger - the server that is hosting my blog - totally sucks, and I am going to change as soon as possible to another. That means you'll have to remember a new Internet address to type into the browser if you want to read my coming updates.

This is because in Blogger, all dates, all times, all updates, are totally wrong and I am sick of editing them afterwards. It says I am updating at 10 AM when I'm in school... I don't know why because I've changed the time-zone to +9 Japanese time, so it should register as 5 PM, but no.

Also I am unable to upload more than one picture at a time, making it annyoing to write my Nara-school trip update since I took more than 120 pictures. I just don't have the patience to upload 120 pictures one by one. So all in all, Blogger totally sucks. And I don't get the support needed either. So I am going to pause my updates until I've found a good server, which might take a week or so. Until then!

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Today's word is sugokku okkotteiru - totally fucking angry

Chopsticks on fire

Today I asked Nie-sensei out on a date. It didn't turn out that great. She dismissed by attempt at the very beginning by saying that I was asking too rudely (I wasn't using the -masenka form, gasp!) and that I was a bit too young for her. Shimatta...

Instead, I had to be satisfied with a date with my room-mate Toni. Together, we cooked our first meal in the appartment instead of going out at a restaurant. It was a dai-seiko! We had bought some meatballs the other day so we fried that and tried to figure out how to use the rice-cooker. In the end, it tasted just like it were supposed to. I had been le Cheffe and chopped the vegetables while Toni fried them together with the meatballs.


Toni the master-meatball-roller-with-chopsticks is rolling his meatballs. With chopsticks

My plate of food. Bought it 3 hours before we started cooking. Plate itself, one bowl for rice, one for the food, a pair of chopsticks. I also have a larger bowl for soup stuffed above the sink

I can also proudly announce that I have tied my first necktie via Internet instructions! So now instead of using the former necktie I had which was a fake one, using a elastic band around the neck, now I can wear a real one on Monday. It's really nice one, with a material that looks like silk (obviously fake since the tie cost 6,50 Swedish crowns), and it runs smoothly along my fingers. And it's just the right lenght too.

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Today's word is ryouri suru - to cook

Test of courage - chocolate and kanji

I went to the supermarket today to buy some food. I've been living pretty extravagantly these 3 weeks because I thought that I'd be moving to my host family. As I've mentioned my host family is no longer ready to receive me, so now I must begin to think a bit more about my finances. So instead of eating at a restaurant (which is still cheap compared to Swedish standards) I figured that something had to be done, else I would spend my life savings on food alone. So there I was, at the supermarket, when suddenly there was an apparition. A vision; a red box I knew I wouldn't be able to see in any other country than Japan. Or maybe I would, but not in Sweden at least, and thus never except in Japan... well, I just had to buy it concidering my bad luck with the Japanese candy I bought the other day.


POCKY!!!! Waaaah! *begins to hum on "Love a Riddle"* And then we have my dinner to the right...

Speaking of buying things. Today I got my other two books that I had ordered from school. The self-study-only kanji books. I jus hope that I will be able to study some of them at the side from my ordinary studies so I will progress in the writing part as well. Guess we'll see about that once we move a bit further.


Minna no nihongo kanji books, let's just hope I get some use from them

Next wednesday we have our first real test. Chapters 1-6. I think I'm prepared for 1-4 but I've got to study more on 5 and 6. Only problem is I've signed up for a school trip on Saturday so that whole day is gone. Instead I'm hoping to take some great pictures, so if I have the time on Sunday you can expect a long account of my journey. So where am I going then? I'm going to the city of Nara to visit one of the oldest temples in Japan and see one of Japan's biggest statues of Buddah; 14 metres high and carved into the mountian I believe. I'm hoping to take some great photos of it.

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Today's word is yuuki - bravery

Genki genki!

Nie-sensei started today's first lesson by asking us if we felt genki. Healthy that is. It can also mean high in spirits, as in "you ready to study until you bleed??!?! huryeeeeeeah!" or something like that. I think she meant the latter. But the fact is that we were supposed to feel very genki too, since today was the health examination for most students on campus. The Japanese are extremely picky about health and cleanliness (as I've shown in earlier installments with the hand-washing at restaurants). They are not allowing foreigners to donate blood because it might be contaminated by something that hasn't been discovered by the doctors in whatever country you come from. It doesn't matter that I've donated blood for the past 4 years, my blood just isn't good enough. So that's one income that I won't be able to account for.

Today though, it wasn't my blood they were after; it was my body. I swear, the doctor wanted me. No one had to take their shirt off but me. I guess he wanted to see my manly torso. Anyway, into the buss I go (yeah, they've got mobile x-ray centres) and it's done in a jiffy. They were checking for tubercelocis(?). I wouldn't be surprised if I had actually got it even though I have never smoked a cigarette in my entire life, because in Japan people smoke as if their face is on fire. You don't see it because of the smoke they constantly breathe out. Puah puah, even high school students smoke if they can get their hands on cigarettes. Good thing they wear school uniforms so you see if it's a boy or a girl. Wouldn't want to make a mistake when I pull out my flash-cards extraodrinaire



One bus each. Only male doctors in ours though...


Nie-sensei. At 2 o'clock she's still genki. She actually works until 5;30 then studies English from 8-10

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Today's word is shinsatsu - medical examination

Break a leg!

Well now, today I have only bad news. First off I have been told by the school that I will not be able to move to my host family. A member of their family had had an accident and will not be able to act host family for me or anyone else for the time being. So here I am, still in the shared appartment when I was looking forward to having a room of my own in a Japanese house with all that comes with it.

Japan is the dream country for the one who wants to lose weight. I noticed that when going to the supermarket to buy some candy to comfort myself after the homestay family news... Ok so if they have candy in Japan how can it be *the* country for weightloss other than the fact that the food is low-cal? Well the candy is unedible. It looks nice and tasty on the outside, and once you grab a bite... well, I don't think I need to explain. Just imagine your mouth full of flour. The Japanese are in other words thin because they can't eat the damn candy they produce!! Or something like that... at least I know I will be standing away from the candy department for the coming months.


Horrible Japanese candy; eat at your own peril

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Today's word is tsumazuki - setback

Raislaandwaisha

Welcome to this update that is the first which will be in total Japanese! Except this part of course. Here is how you install Asian fonts on your computer to view Japanese, Chinese and Korean writing:

First click on "Control Panel"


Then click on "Language setup"


Now click the "Languages" tab in the top and check the "Install files for East Asian languages" box. 230MB of space is needed. You will be required to restart your computer.


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今日は!

これは　初めのＰＯＳＵＴＯだ。私は　凄く　嬉しいです。　でも　ちょっと　短いです。まだまだ　べんきょします。この　イメーギは　見て　ください。

SEXとＫＯＴＯＫＯだ!　恐ろしい!

じゃ、　今日　これで　終わりました。　またね!

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今日の　単語は　muzukashii - hard (as in difficult)

King Andreas

Yes!! Now I feel like a royal member alright. Got my blue blood flowing in my veins and my Blue Blood lying right next to me on the table. It was merely a coincidence that I found it when I went looking for Kotoko. I was supposed to meet with her at the CD-store, and then I think I subconsciously went past the case with X-Japan in it... Instead of a single CD there were two, and behold, it was one I had to get!! So I bought it instantly and ran home, afraid that it might disappear if I waited. Question is now; do I open the sealed package and listen to this brilliant piece of J-rock, or do I stuff it into my suite case and wait 8,5 months until I can hear it in my stereo at home.


The lighting in my room sucks... but at least I can see my CD clearly on the table!

Hm, as I'm writing this now at home I just remember; what about my meeting with Kotoko...

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Today's word is kouzoku - royalty (as in royal person)

Benkyoushite kudasai

Holy mother of the big-boned Buddah! Now I sure got my hands full. School has finally (hm, maybe I shouldn't be so positive considering what we get) begun and I have loads of homework. Already. 4 days into the course and we're pushing forwards as if I was in third grade at seconday school again. Feels kind of good, cause I know we're getting somewhere then! But at the same time, it sure is hard work. But, without it I wouldn't learn anything, and then why am I here... I've also bought flash cards, something that Japanese students use vigoriously to learn English. So I thought, I should be able to do it in the reverse order! And here I am with three neat little flash card holders. These will be great when I start studying kanji I think.


One day's worth of homework...


My flash cards! Hyaku


Minna no nihongo, my Japanese and English text books. I am getting two more with only kanji later, self-study only

The teachers at the school are great, especially one; Nie-sensei. She can joke about herself to make tedious and awkward situations feel like a breeze. Then we have one older who is of course the pronounciation teacher! And she goes crazy on this one guy who cannot pronounce some words correctly. It's not that he lisps, but he just cannot get the tongue right on the s's. She's a bit old school and corrects every time she hears it's wrong. Nie-sensei lets it slip and then says the same word in a setence of her own. It's a trick I learned at the teacher-training too back in Sweden. It is a good way to let the student hear the correct word without pointing him out "you're wrong idiot, it's like this".

The third of our teachers do lisp however, and sometimes it's really hard to tell what she's saying when she's speaking quickly. In Japanese, however, it doesn't matter that you lisp because you can pronounce words accurately anyway, in contrast to Swedish.

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Today's word is genmitsuna - strict (as in exact)

Konnichiwa!

I got jumped alright. On the way back from school, just like I told you. But they were a bit young to my taste. 7-year-olds who thought it was cool that I spoke Japanese. I told them I only knew a little and they asked me if I knew of this and that. Most of the time I just stood there with question marks for eyes and a puzzled expression. But sure enough, there was this one guy who persisted in talking to me when they noticed that I couldn't make myself understood very well. Yet... He wanted to know if I liked apples, and meat, and fish, and where I came from. But it seems they don't have much global geography in the early classes. He knew of Japan and South Korea so far. Wish I had had a map.

When I got back to my appartment I figured that if I couldn't talk to a mere child, then how the blazes will I talk to other people who talk of other things than apples and food? A serious focus on studying, that's how! Off I go to the study room. Gambare!!

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Today's word is tabemono - food